MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A Sydney bishop who was stabbed repeatedly in an alleged extremist attack blamed on a teenager has backed X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s legal bid to overturn an Australian ban on sharing graphic video of the attack on social media.

A live stream of the knife attack on April 15 and subsequent social media posts quickly drew a crowd of 2,000 people to the Assyrian Orthodox church, sparking a riot in which 51 police officers were injured and 104 police vehicles were damaged.

"I do acknowledge the Australian government’s desire to have the videos removed because of their graphic nature,” Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said in audio posted on YouTube on Wednesday.

“However, noting our God-given right to freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, I’m not opposed to the videos remaining on social media," Emmanuel added.

Musk has accused Australia of censorship, while Australian governing and opposition lawmakers have united in accusing Musk of arrogance and a lack of social responsibility for allowing violent and divisive posts.

Police announced on Thursday that five teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology have been charged with a range of offenses in an investigation that began with Emmanuel's stabbing.

The attack in the Christ the Good Shepherd Church has set in motion two unrelated legal processes. One is the criminal prosecution of the alleged perpetrator or perpetrators and the other is a civil court action centered on the harm that could be caused by the video spreading on social media.

Police said Thursday the five boys charged, aged from 14 to 17, were among seven arrested across southwest Sydney on Wednesday in a major operation by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. The team includes federal and state police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, and the New South Wales Crime Commission, which specializes in extremists and organized crime.

Police allege the seven are part of a network that included the 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing Emmanuel and a priest. Neither cleric sustained life-threating injuries. That boy was charged Friday with committing a terrorist act, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

X is fighting an order from the Australian regulator, the eSafety Commission, last week to take down Emmanuel's video from the platform.

Other social media companies including Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and TikTok have complied with similar orders from the eSafety Commission, which describes itself as the world's first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online.

An Australian Federal Court judge on Wednesday extended his order banning X from showing the video until May 10, despite objections from X's lawyer, Marcus Hoyne.

Emmanuel had recently provided X's legal team with an affidavit “stating that he is strongly of the view that the material should be available,” Hoyne told the court.

The commission's lawyer, Christopher Tran, told the court that the video was “graphic and violent” and would cause “irreparable harm if it's continuing to circulate.”

Emmanuel, 53, who immigrated to Australian from Iraq as a child, has called for calm and urged no retaliation for the attack. He suffered multiple stab wounds, including to his face, and has not posted images of his face since the attack.

The five boys allegedly linked to Emmanuel's attacker appeared before a Sydney children's court on Thursday.

Two boys aged 16 and one aged 17 were charged with conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act, a police statement said. The older boy was also charged with carrying a knife in public, it said.

Two boys aged 14 and 17 were charged with possessing or controlling violent extremist material accessed online, police said.

Two other boys arrested Wednesday have not been charged so far, police said. Three other juveniles and two men were being questioned by police but were not under arrest, police said.

More than 400 police executed 13 search warrants Wednesday at properties across southwest Sydney and one in Goulburn, a city about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Sydney.

New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson alleged Wednesday that the arrested boys “adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology.”

The church attack was the second high-profile recent stabbing to rock Sydney. Three days earlier, a 40-year-old man with a history of mental illness and no apparent motive was shot dead by police inside a shopping mall after he killed six people and wounded a dozen others.

Police said there was no threat to Thursday's commemoration of Anzac Day, when thousands gather for dawn services and street marches around Australia to remember the nation’s war dead.

Extremists have plotted mass-casualty attacks on past Anzac Days, but police have intervened before plans were executed.

April 25 is the date in 1915 when the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, in northwest Turkey, in an ill-fated campaign that was the soldiers’ first combat in World War I.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok.

Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley “HJ” Coleman IV to make putts on a practice mat. The Coleman family posted video of the proceedings on the app — complete with Biden holing out a putt and the teen knocking his own shot home in response, over the caption, “I had to sink the rebuttal.”

The network television cameras that normally follow the president were stuck outside.

Biden signed legislation Wednesday that could ban TikTok in the U.S. while his campaign has embraced the platform and tried to work with influencers. Already struggling to maintain his previous support from younger voters, the president is now facing criticism from some avid users of the app, which researchers have found is a primary news source for a third of Americans under the age of 30.

“There’s a core hypocrisy to the Biden administration supporting the TikTok ban while at the same time using TikTok for his campaign purposes,” said Kahlil Greene, who has more than 650,000 followers and is known on TikTok as the “Gen Z Historian.”

“I think it illustrates that he and his people know the power and necessity of TikTok.”

The Biden campaign defends its approach and rejects the idea that White House policy is contradicting its political efforts.

“We would be silly to write off any place where people are getting information about the president,” said Rob Flaherty, who ran the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy and now is deputy manager of Biden’s reelection campaign.

Flaherty said Biden's team forged relationships with TikTok influencers the 2020 election and that the platform has only gotten more influential since then, “growing as an internet search engine and driving narratives about the president.”

The Biden campaign says that an increasingly fragmented modern media environment requires it to meet voters where they are and that TikTok is one of many such places where would-be supporters see its content, in addition to platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

It has produced its own TikTok content, but also relied on everyday users who interact with the president. That includes a post from a family that ate fries and other fixings from the Cook Out fast food chain when Biden recently visited Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as Coleman’s putting video.

Opponents of TikTok say its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance gives Beijing a dangerous amount of influence over what narratives Americans see as well as potential access to U.S. user data. Chinese national-security laws allow the ruling Communist Party wide latitude over private business, though the U.S. has not made public evidence that the Chinese government has manipulated the app or forced ByteDance to do its bidding.

The law Biden signed Wednesday would force ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. company within a year or face a national ban. ByteDance has argued the law violates the First Amendment and promised to sue.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, now publicly opposes a TikTok ban after issuing an executive order while in office trying to ban the app if ByteDance didn’t sell it.

The White House doesn't have an official TikTok account and Biden banned the app on most government devices in December 2022. Yet the Biden campaign also officially joined TikTok on the night of this year's Super Bowl, as the president shunned a traditional gameday TV interview to instead spread a political message with the platform.

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki convened a virtual briefing in 2022 for more than two dozen of the app’s influencers to discuss the U.S. approach to Ukraine, a gathering later parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”

There have been scores of other such events, including an influencer party at the White House last Christmas and a State of the Union watch party in March. During Biden’s recent, million campaign fundraiser at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, there was an influencer happy hour and an after-party where attendees interacted with Biden.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the legislation Biden signed “is not a ban. This is about our national security.” She added that the White House isn’t saying “that we do not want Americans to use TikTok."

TikTok has 170 million U.S. users and a study released last November by the Pew Research Center found that about a third of U.S. adults under 30 regularly got news from TikTok, compared to 14% of all adults.

Adults under 30 are more likely than U.S. adults overall to oppose a ban on the use of TikTok in the United States, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in January. Nearly half of 18- to 29-year-olds are opposed, compared to 35% of U.S. adults.

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults said then they use TikTok at least once a day, including 44% of 18- to 29-year-olds. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 7% say they use TikTok “almost constantly” and an additional 28% are using it “several times a day.”

Priorities USA, a leading Democratic super PAC, is spending around jumi million this cycle to help fund more than 100 TikTok influencers who produce pro-Biden content ahead of November, and views those efforts as an extension of traditional organizing and communications initiatives.

Even if TikTok is eventually banned, most of its influencers are on other platforms that could continue to take their content, especially YouTube and Instagram, said Danielle Butterfield, Priorities USA’s executive director.

“TikTok users are online generally and that’s a lot of different places,” said Butterfield, who was also deputy director of digital advertising for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden, meanwhile, has seen his standing with young people decline. About one-third of adults under 30 approve of how he’s handling his job as president, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in March — a sharp drop from the roughly two-thirds approved when he first entered office.

Greene studied history at Yale, served as the school’s first Black student body president and graduated in 2022. He attended past White House events as an influencer, including a Juneteenth celebration and a West Wing event for the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping health care and green energy package, where he met both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

About a year ago, however, Greene says he began posting about Biden’s championing a sweeping 1994 crime law that activists have long said contributed to the mass incarceration of racial minorities. He also criticized Biden's current administration for what he called “a lack of specific policy made for Black Americans.”

Since then, while Greene continues to receive more general emails from the Biden administration, he said says he's no longer invited to more personal events while some “creators who fell in line, who are less critical” are still going.

Flaherty, Biden's deputy campaign manager, said the campaign has paid influencers in specific instances, like when their content has been used in ads, and that some content creators who work with the campaign have raised concerns about legislation forcing divestment. But he doesn't see it having a major Election Day impact.

“I think young voters aren’t going to vote on TikTok,” Flaherty said. “They are going to vote on issues, which are discussed on TikTok but they’re also discussed other places.”

Greene, however, said young voters' frustration with the Biden administration in other areas — particularly its handling of Israel-Hamas war — have combined with the TikTok divestment legislation to spell political problems for Biden.

“There's no ability for me to overstate how that exacerbates the outcry," he said, “and the dissatisfaction that people already have.”

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation has concluded that a young Black man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a rural Missouri home, not at the hands of the white homeowner who had a history of racist social media postings, an FBI official told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Derontae Martin, 19, was at a prom party on April 25, 2021, when he died in an attic closet. The death was initially ruled a suicide. Relatives of Martin and others questioned that finding, and a jury at a coroner's inquest later ruled that Martin died by “violence," prompting the FBI investigation.

Chris Crocker, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's St. Louis division, said an extensive investigation concluded "that this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, not a homicide or a hate crime.” Relatives were informed of the finding in December, Crocker said.

Martin's mother, Ericka Lotts, said in a text that she remains convinced that her son was the victim of a homicide.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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Martin was originally from the St. Louis area, but his family moved to Park Hills, a town of 8,500 residents about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis, when he was a child. Though that area of Missouri is about 95% white, Martin was popular and happy, Ericka Lotts has said.

Martin was a star defensive tackle and earned a scholarship to a small out-of-state college. He graduated from high school in 2020 but needed to bring up his entrance exam score before he could go to college. Ericka Lotts had relocated back to the St. Louis area, and Martin was living with her.

On the night of April 24, 2021, Martin was back in the Park Hills area. He attended the prom party of a young woman, a friend of a friend, at a home near Fredericktown, 27 miles (43 kilometers) south of Park Hills.

The home was owned by a man who in Facebook postings mocked foreign accents and defended the Confederate flag. He posted a meme showing a hand flipping the finger. It read: “Here’s my apology for being white.” Because the man is not charged with a crime, The Associated Press is not naming him.

Deputies and EMTs were called to the home at 3:01 a.m. on April 25, 2021. They found Martin in the attic, dead. Madison County Sheriff Katie McCutcheon said an initial autopsy indicated Martin died of a self-inflicted gunshot. The Missouri State Highway Patrol was asked to investigate, and it concurred.

About 100 racial injustice activists marched in Fredericktown shortly after Martin's death. Gray said at the time that counter-protesters tossed two nooses at protesters and yelled racial slurs. That area of Missouri was home to Frank Ancona, a Missouri Ku Klux Klan leader shot to death by his wife in 2017.

A coroner’s inquest jury was convened in July 2021. The AP obtained audio of the testimony through an open records request. Zachary Graham testified that he saw Martin shoot himself.

Others said Martin had been acting paranoid and aloof. Martin had methamphetamine in his system — enough to cause paranoia and irrational thinking — according to a toxicology report cited by Dr. Russell Deidiker, who performed the autopsy.

But Phillip Lawler testified that the homeowner told him weeks after the shooting that he killed Martin. “He just told me he didn’t like Black people” and used a racial slur, Lawler testified.

The homeowner, at the inquest, denied ever saying anything like that. He testified that he was at the party and on the main floor of the home with others when the shot was heard, sending people scattering. Some of the young people, in testimony, backed up his account.

Crocker, in a phone interview with the AP, said evidence showed that Martin had meth levels in his body "consistent with levels that often lead to extreme paranoia and sometimes even death.” He told others at the party he was worried that a gang member was after him, the investigation found. Someone gave him a gun for protection.

Martin shot himself “in the presence of a friend of his who was trying to talk him out of doing it," Crocker said.

Family members had said evidence didn’t match suicide, but Crocker said the wound was consistent with being self-inflicted.

FBI officials met with Martin's family in December to inform them of the findings. “We made sure to give them a whole understanding of the steps we took to reach this conclusion," Crocker said.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division provided two attorneys to help with the investigation, Crocker said. An FBI agent who specializes in hate crimes was assigned to the investigation.

“We really took extraordinary steps in this case to make sure we reached the right conclusion,” Crocker said.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A woman who sued Mississippi's capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday.

George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019, days after three Jackson police officers pulled him from a car while searching for a murder suspect.

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday approved the payment of ,786 to settle the lawsuit that relatives of Robinson filed in state court in October 2019, WLBT-TV reported. City documents said the settlement was not an admission of liability by the city or the three officers named in the lawsuit. Robinson was Black, as are the three officers.

The payment to the relatives — including Robinson's sister, Bettersten Wade — was approved on a unanimous vote. Wade's attorney, Dennis Sweet III, released a letter Wednesday saying that the city of Jackson violated a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement. Sweet said that because of the public disclosure and because the city “appears to claim or infer some sort of perceived victory,” Wade intends to continue suing the city.

Sweet said Robinson's family reached a separate “substantial settlement” with an ambulance company.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes said he thought the city settlement was too small, although he voted for it.

“I’m saying it just sends the wrong message about human life, especially Black people’s lives,” Stokes said. “I think a step in the right direction would’ve been to pay the family a little bit more."

The lawsuit alleged that the three officers “brutally, viciously and mercilessly beat Mr. Robinson by striking and kicking him."

“Mr. Robinson had not committed any crime, was not the subject of any active warrant, and was not a threat to himself or any person in the area,” the lawsuit said.

Robinson had been hospitalized for a stroke days before the police encounter and was on medication, Wade has said. He had a seizure hours after he was beaten, and he died two days later from bleeding on his brain.

Second-degree murder charges against two of the officers were dropped in the case. In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted former detective Anthony Fox of culpable negligence manslaughter — and then in January of this year, the Mississippi Court of Appeals overturned Fox's conviction. A majority of the appeals court wrote that prosecutors failed to prove Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that Robinson's death “was reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.”

Wade is the mother of Dexter Wade, who was run over by an off-duty Jackson Police Department officer in March 2023.

Dexter Wade was buried at the Hinds County Pauper’s Cemetery. But it was October before his mother was told about the burial.

His body was exhumed Nov. 13, and an independent autopsy was conducted. A wallet found in the pocket of his jeans contained his state identification card with his home address, credit card and a health insurance card, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wade’s family.

On Nov. 20, Dexter Wade's family held a funeral for him, and he was buried in another cemetery.

Two 11-year-old boys navigate school, friendship, family and change in Minhal Baig’s lyrical drama “We Grown Now.” It’s an evocative memory piece, wistful and honest, and a different kind of portrait of a very infamous place: Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing development.

And, pointedly, it’s a film that might not have existed without Participant, the activist film and television studio that just this month announced it was shutting down operations.

Baig sets her film in the fall of 1992, a moment in which the promise of the 1940s urban renewal project had curdled beyond repair. It was there, on Oct. 13 of that year, that 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by a sniper while walking to elementary school with his mother. A few days later, the horror film “Candyman” opened across the country with its Black boogeyman and white heroine, inspiring pointed critiques for its regressive racial stereotypes.

No longer the place of “Good Times,” Cabrini-Green had become a metonym for the failures of the system. A few years later, authorities would begin demolishing buildings there, the last of which came down in 2011. It’s now home to luxury apartments.

But childhood is childhood for Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez). And the biggest thing on their mind at the beginning is transporting a found mattress down the stairs of the high rise, through the streets and sidewalks to their playground area where it will provide the perfect landing cushion for their favorite activity: Jumping.

Malik lives with his sister, mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett, in a lovely performance) and grandmother (S. Epatha Merkerson). The adults are stable, calm and positive influences on the lives of the kids, keeping them safe in their little enclave. Still, realities of their small world inside Cabrini-Green do occasionally creep in (or, rather, sometimes burst in at 2 a.m., when authorities decide to raid and trash their apartment looking for drugs that aren’t there). Dolores tries to protest and stick up for their rights but is painfully aware of her powerlessness over the ever-escalating hostilities towards them.

The death of a classmate sends everyone into a spiral. Voices from the outside suddenly emerge, from Chicago’s mayor Richard M. Daley and others vowing to clean up Cabrini-Green. There is a pointed disconnect with what Malik and Eric’s day-to-day is actually like, playing, jumping, teasing little sisters and sometimes escaping the dull nature documentary at their school to have a real adventure. Some of these moments land, especially the banter between the boys, but some are a little clunkier. These are the ones that lean more into whimsical ideas of play and inspiration (like when they decide to visit the Art Institute on their own and have a Ferris Bueller moment with the Seurat painting) than an authentic portrait of childhood. But also, why not show the kids being self-motivated to talk about art?

And it’s one of their last adventures before reality comes back to fracture their bond, when Malik’s mother makes the decision to leave Cabrini-Green for a job opportunity in Peoria. Their goodbyes may just have you reaching for a tissue — a testament to the two young actors.

Baig is a product of Chicago, though not Cabrini-Green. There are perhaps questions about who should tell whose story, but she has come to it with a palpable empathy and interest, which is all you can ask for, really. Why would we want to make rules about filmmakers stepping outside the narrow confines of their personal experience to tell different stories?

That care shines through in every frame (evocatively shot by Pat Scola), for the kids growing up in these circumstances, for the adults trying to shelter them, and for the magic they’re able to find despite everything. It is a delicate look at what life might have felt like beyond the fear-mongering headlines, with an elegant score from Jay Wadley. “We Grown Now” is slightly dreamy and stylized, too, but instead of a liability, it makes this very small story feel grand, poetic and cinematic — just like it would for an 11-year-old.

“We Grown Now,” a Sony Pictures Classics release in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago on Friday and expanding April 26, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for “thematic material and language.” Running time 93 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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This story was first published on April 17, 2024. It was updated on April 24, 2024 to correct the last name of actor Blake Cameron James.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s Republican-dominant House on Wednesday spiked legislation that would have banned local governments from paying to either study or dispense money for reparations for slavery.

The move marked a rare defeat on a GOP-backed proposal initially introduced nearly one year ago. It easily cleared the Republican-controlled Senate last April, but lawmakers eventually hit pause as the House became consumed with controversy over expelling two Black Democratic lawmakers for their participating in a pro-gun control protest from the House floor. That protest followed a deadly elementary school shooting in Nashville.

Interest in the reparations bill emerged again this year, just as lawmakers and GOP Gov. Bill Lee were in the process of finalizing the removal and replacement of every board member of the state's only publicly-funded historically Black public university, Tennessee State University. That sparked more outrage among critics who contend that Tennessee’s white GOP state leaders have long refused to trust Black local leaders.

As the TSU fallout increased, House members appeared hesitant to hold a potentially explosive debate over reparations. The bill was briefly debated on the House floor last week but support remained unclear.

“The idea of studying reparations doesn’t take anything from you,” Democratic Rep. Larry Miller, who is Black and from Memphis, said during the short House debate. “What’s inside of you to say, ‘Look, we can’t study our history. We can’t even talk about our history, you can’t even use your local tax dollars to study it.’ That is so antiquated.”

Ultimately, House leaders waited until the final week of session to return to the measure. But as Republican Rep. John Ragan, the bill's sponsor, approached the front of the House to begin his opening remarks, another Republican requested that the body “table” his proposal — a move that would effectively kill it for the year.

Nearly 30 Republicans joined House Democrats in tabling the bill, including Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton.

Ahead of the vote, Ragan maintained his bill was needed, arguing that reparations advocates want to “take money from our grandchildren's pockets as a judgement for someone else's great-great-grandfather's actions."

“Is it right to say that the faults of a small percentage of long-past generations must be borne by all of today’s Americans? No. It’s never right to punish an innocent person for an act committed by another,” Ragan said Wednesday.

Under House rules, no other lawmakers were allowed to speak during the vote.

“We decided move on, go accomplish some other stuff,” Sexton later told reporters. “You can always come back.”

Tennessee lawmakers began seriously considering banning the consideration of reparations only after the state’s most populated county, which encompasses Memphis, announced it would spend million to study the feasibility of reparations for the descendants of slaves and find “actionable items.”

The decision by Shelby County leaders was prompted by the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by officers in January 2023.

Yet the idea to ban reparations has been floated in other states.

A Florida Republican lawmaker proposed a constitutional amendment this year that would have banned state or local governments from paying reparations, but the measure didn't pass. A Missouri Republican introduced a bill that would ban any state or local government entity from spending on reparations based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or economic class. It hasn't advanced to date.

Meanwhile, other states have willingly moved to study reparations, including California, New Jersey and Vermont.

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel — or any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza.

The demand has its roots in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a decades-old campaign against Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. The movement has taken on new strength as the Israel-Hamas war surpasses the six-month mark and stories of suffering in Gaza have sparked international calls for a cease-fire.

Inspired by ongoing protests and the arrests last week of more than 100 students at Columbia University, students from Massachusetts to California are now gathering by the hundreds on campuses, setting up tent camps and pledging to stay put until their demands are met.

“We want to be visible,” said Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who noted that students at the university have been pushing for divestment from Israel since 2002. “The university should do something about what we’re asking for, about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza. They should stop investing in this genocide.”

Campus protests began after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and noncombatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.

The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel's military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself.

Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups, often including local chapters of organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. They're banding together as umbrella groups, such as MIT's Coalition Against Apartheid and the University of Michigan's Tahrir Coalition.

The groups largely act independently, though there has been some coordination. After students at Columbia formed their encampment last week, they held a phone call with about 200 other people interested in starting their own camps. But mostly it has happened spontaneously, with little collaboration between campuses, organizers said.

The demands vary from campus to campus. Among them:

— Stop doing business with military weapons manufacturers that are supplying arms to Israel.

— Stop accepting research money from Israel for projects that aid the country's military efforts.

— Stop investing college endowments with money managers who profit from Israeli companies or contractors.

— Be more transparent about what money is received from Israel and what it's used for.

Student governments at some colleges in recent weeks have passed resolutions calling for an end to investments and academic partnerships with Israel. Such bills were passed by student bodies at Columbia, Harvard Law, Rutgers and American University.

Officials at several universities say they want to have a conversation with students and honor their right to protest. But they also are echoing the concerns of many Jewish students that some of the demonstrators’ words and actions amount to antisemitism — and they say such behavior won’t be tolerated.

Sylvia Burwell, president of American University, rejected a resolution from the undergraduate senate to end investments and partnerships with Israel.

“Such actions threaten academic freedom, the respectful free expression of ideas and views, and the values of inclusion and belonging that are central to our community,” Burwell said in a statement.

Burwell cited the university's “longstanding position” against the decades-old BDS movement.

Protesters in the movement have drawn parallels between Israel’s policy in Gaza — a tiny strip of land tucked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to about 2.3 million Palestinians — to apartheid in South Africa. Israel imposed an indefinite blockade of Gaza after Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007.

Opponents of BDS say its message veers into antisemitism. In the past decade alone, more than 30 states have enacted laws or directives blocking agencies from hiring companies that support the movement. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called it a “pernicious threat” in 2019, saying it fueled bias against Jews on U.S. campuses.

Asked this week whether he condemned “the antisemitic protests,” President Joe Biden said he did. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden said after an Earth Day event Monday.

At Yale, where dozens of student protesters were arrested Monday, President Peter Salovey noted in a message to campus that, after hearing from students, the university’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility had recommended against divesting from military weapons manufacturers.

President Minouche Shafik at Columbia said there should be “serious conversations” about how the university can help in the Middle East. But “we cannot have one group dictate terms,” she said in a statement Monday.

MIT said in a statement that the protesters have “the full attention of leadership, who have been meeting and talking with students, faculty, and staff on an ongoing basis.”

On many campuses, students pushing for divestment say they don’t know the extent of their colleges’ connections to Israel. Universities with large endowments spread their money across a vast array of investments, and it can be difficult or impossible to identify where it all lands.

The U.S. Education Department requires colleges to report gifts and contracts from foreign sources, but there have been problems with underreporting, and colleges sometimes dodge reporting requirements by steering money through separate foundations that work on their behalf.

According to an Education Department database, about 100 U.S. colleges have reported gifts or contracts from Israel totaling 5 million over the past two decades. The data tells little about where the money comes from, however, or how it was used.

Some students at MIT have published the names of several researchers who accept money from Israel’s defense ministry for projects that the students say could help with drone navigation and missile protection. All told, pro-Palestinian students say, MIT has accepted more than million from the defense ministry over the past decade.

MIT officials didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

“MIT is directly complicit with all of this,” said sophomore Quinn Perian, a leader of a Jewish student group that is calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. He said there’s growing momentum to hold colleges accountable for any role they play in supporting Israel’s military.

“We’re all drawing from the same fire,” he said. “They’re forcing us, as students, to be complicit in this genocide.”

Motivated by the Columbia protests, students at the University of Michigan were camping out on a campus plaza Tuesday demanding an end to financial investments with Israel. They say the school sends more than billion to investment managers who profit from Israeli companies or contractors. They also cited investments in companies that produce drones or warplanes used in Israel, and in surveillance products used at checkpoints into Gaza.

University of Michigan officials said that they have no direct investments with Israeli companies, and that indirect investments made through funds amount to a fraction of 1% of the university's billion endowment. The school rejected calls for divestment, citing a nearly 20-year-old policy “that shields the university’s investments from political pressures.”

Students at Harvard and Yale are demanding greater transparency, along with their calls for divestment.

Transparency was one of the key demands at Emerson College, where 80 students and other supporters occupied a busy courtyard on the downtown Boston campus Tuesday.

Twelve tents sporting slogans including “Free Gaza” or “No U.S. $ For Israel” lined the entrance to the courtyard, with sleeping bags and pillows peeking out through the zippered doors.

Students sat cross-legged on the brick paving stones typing away on final papers and reading for exams. The semester ends in a couple of weeks.

“I would love to go home and have a shower," said Owen Buxton, a film major, “but I will not leave until we reach our demands or I am dragged out by police.”

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II have been digitized and made available for free, genealogy company Ancestry announced Wednesday.

The website, known as one of the largest global online resources of family history, is collaborating with the Irei Project, which has been working to memorialize more than 125,000 detainees. It's an ideal partnership as the project's researchers were already utilizing Ancestry. Out of over 60 billion records Ancestry holds, nearly 350,000 have been found to be pertinent to camp detainees and their families.

People will be able to look at more than just names and tell “a bigger story of a person,” said Duncan Ryūken Williams, the Irei Project director.

"Being able to research and contextualize a person who has a longer view of family history and community history, and ultimately, American history, that's what it's about — this collaboration,” Williams told told The Associated Press exclusively.

In response to the 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, to allow for the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry. The thousands of citizens — two-thirds of whom were Americans — were unjustly forced to leave their homes and relocate to camps with barracks and barbed wire. Some detainees went on to enlist in the U.S. military.

Through Ancestry, people will be able to tap into scanned documents from that era such as military draft cards, photographs from WWII and 1940s and ’50s Census records. Most of them will be accessible outside of a paywall.

Williams, a religion professor at the University of Southern California and a Buddhist priest, says Ancestry will have names that have been assiduously spell-checked. Irei Project researchers went to great efforts to verify names that were mangled on government camp rosters and other documents.

“So, our project, we say it's a project of remembrance as well as a project of repair,” Williams said. “We try to correct the historical record.”

The Irei Project debuted a massive book at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles that contains a list of verified names the week of Feb. 19, which is a Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American Community. The book, called the Ireichō, will be on display until Dec. 1. The project also launched its own website with the names as well as light installations at old camp sites and the museum.

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military government have withdrawn from the eastern border town of Myawaddy two weeks after forcing the army to give up its defense, residents and members of the group said Wednesday.

Their withdrawal came after a contending armed Karen group, which has occupied the town and claimed responsibility for its security, provided assistance to army soldiers who had fled to a riverside spot there for safety.

The soldiers came from the army’s Infantry Battalion 275, whose base, about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy, was captured on April 11 by the armed wing of the Karen National Union —- or KNU — and allied pro-democracy forces.

The fleeing soldiers reestablished themselves in an area next to one of Myawaddy’s two bridges connecting it to Thailand’s Mae Sot district.

The complicated maneuvering is the latest development in the nationwide conflict in Myanmar that began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

Despite its advantage in arms and manpower, Myanmar’s army had been on the defensive since last October, when an alliance of three ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast. Resistance forces since then have captured major swaths of territory in northern Shan state on the border with China, made significant gains in Rakhine state in the west, and continue to pressure the army elsewhere.

The soldiers now encamped next to the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge were given at least tacit protection there by Kayin state's Border Guard Force, another armed Karen group that had been nominally affiliated with the military but announced last month they were cutting their ties and establishing themselves independently under the name of the Karen National Army.

The border guard units had been accused of providing protection to casino resorts in the Myawaddy area that have been decried as centers for organized crime, including online scam operations and human trafficking.

KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee told journalists on Wednesday that its forces had withdrawn temporarily from Myawaddy as Border Guard Force units brought the soldiers hiding near the bridge to the abandoned Infantry Battalion 275 base, where they raised Myanmar’s national flag in place of the standard hoisted by the guerrillas when it occupied it.

Photos and video clips of a handful of soldiers raising Myanmar’s flag on Tuesday were circulated by supporters of the military government on the Telegram social network. It wasn't clear if any of the soldiers remained at the base after the photo opportunity, or if they returned to their campsite by the bridge.

The KNU is preparing to defend against an expected counterattack by the military government, and it keeping its units mobile rather than trying to hold territory.

A member of the Karen National Union/ Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, another Karen organization based in Myawaddy, told The Associated Press that the border guards had helped arrange the safe flight of the soldiers to their bridge encampment two weeks ago and provided them with food and weapons. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information.

Myawaddy’s residents say the Border Guard Force has played a major role in taking charge of security measures in the town.

Last Friday, the Karen guerrillas launched a small attack aided by drones against the soldiers hiding near the bridge, and Myanmar’s military responded with airstrikes, dropping several bombs nearby for two days, and forcing about 3,000 residents to seek shelter in Thailand.

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it.

Tennessee became the latest when the Republican governor this week signed legislation that would prohibit banks and other financial institutions from considering a customer's participation — or lack thereof — in “diversity, equity and inclusion training” or “social justice programming.”

That came shortly after the Democratic governor in Kansas allowed legislation to become law without her signature that will prohibit statements about diversity, equity or inclusion from being used in decisions about student admissions, financial aid or employment at higher education institutions.

Last week, Iowa's Republican-led Legislature also gave final approval to a budget bill that would ban all DEI offices and initiatives in higher education that aren't necessary to comply with accreditation or federal law. The measure expands upon a directive last year from the Iowa Board of Regents to eliminate DEI staff positions.

Republican lawmakers in about two dozen states have filed bills seeking to restrict DEI initiatives this year. They are countered by Democrats who have sponsored supportive DEI measures in about 20 states. Altogether, lawmakers have proposed about 150 bills this year that would either restrict or promote DEI efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis using the legislation-tracking software Plural.

Higher education institutions and many businesses have long devoted resources to improving diversity and inclusivity.

More recently, conservative groups began raising concerns that DEI initiatives are promoting an agenda that elevates racial or gender identity over individual merit. Since 2022, about half a dozen conservative or libertarian organizations have offered model measures to state lawmakers to eliminate DEI offices or prohibit the use of DEI criteria in training programs or employment, academic and financial decisions.

Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an architect of the movement, said in a recent article that the ultimate goal is to “abolish DEI in all American institutions.”

The acronym DEI “has now been weaponized," said Paulette Granberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. "And it’s taking us, unfortunately, back to a time that failed to acknowledge the inequities that persist today based on discriminatory practices.”

The Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California has launched a “National DEI Defense Fund.” Among other things, it provides free professional development courses where publicly funded DEI training has been banned.

Republican-led Florida and Texas last year became the first states to adopt broad-based laws banning DEI efforts in higher education. Universities in Texas have since eliminated more than 100 DEI-related jobs and Florida universities also have been shedding positions.

Earlier this year, Republican governors in Alabama and Utah signed laws restricting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts not only in higher education but also in K-12 schools and throughout state government.

GOP governors in Idaho and Wyoming also signed legislation this year restricting the use of state funds for DEI efforts at higher education institutions. Other bills signed into law in Idaho and GOP-led Indiana prohibit the use of DEI statements in employment and admissions decisions at public colleges and universities.

A similar bill barring mandatory DEI statements in higher education passed Wisconsin's Republican-led legislature but got vetoed by the Democratic governor.

Facing political pressure, some universities have revised their practices regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.

University of Wisconsin regents agreed in December to shift at least 43 diversity positions to focus on “student success” and eliminate statements supporting diversity on student applications. The actions were part of a deal with lawmakers to release funding for pay raises and campus construction projects.

Large public university systems in Arizona, Georgia, Missouri and North Carolina are among those that have scrapped the use of diversity statements in employment decisions.

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order in December barring state agencies and universities from supporting DEI programs that "grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin.”

The University of Oklahoma said its DEI office closed April 1 and the remaining employees are being reassigned to new roles.

Some Democratic-led states have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Washington's Democratic governor signed a law this year that requires diversity, equity and inclusion concepts to be incorporated into updated state learning standards for public K-12 schools.

Legislation given final approval this month by Maryland's Democratic-led General Assembly requires the state's retirement system to employ a director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Various budget proposals also would allot money to specific state DEI efforts. As one example: Oregon's Democratic governor signed legislation last week that provides ,000 to the Columbia River Gorge Commission for a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.

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Associated Press writer Sean Murphy contributed from Oklahoma City.

Like many little girls, a young Kristi Yamaguchi loved playing with Barbie. With a schedule packed with ice skating practices, her Barbie dolls became her “best friends.”

So, it's surreal for the decorated Olympian figure skater to now be a Barbie girl herself.

“It’s a huge, huge honor. I think a lot of pride comes along with it, not just recognizing the Olympic achievement, but also being recognized during AAPI Month and following in the footsteps of some incredible women that I idolize — Anna May Wong, Maya Angelou and Rosa Parks,” Yamaguchi told The Associated Press. “It's hard to see me put in the category with them.”

Yamaguchi, who became the first Asian American to win an individual figure skating gold medal, at the 1992 Winter Olympics, has been immortalized as a doll for Barbie's “Inspiring Women Series,” Mattel announced Wednesday. The release is timed for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, in May.

This isn't Yamaguchi's first doll depiction. In the '90s, touring show Stars on Ice put out a line of dolls modeled after notable skaters. The Barbie version is a lot more detailed.

Mattel duplicated everything the then 20-year-old medalist wore at the Olympics in Albertville, France: the sparkling black-and-gold brocade outfit designed by Lauren Sheehan, the gold hair ribbon and even a red-and-white bouquet like Yamaguchi held atop the podium.

Yamaguchi said both she and Sheehan are “just so tickled pink."

She also is happy with the doll's visage.

“It looks like me for sure. You know, the eyes and just the shape of the face. And then, of course, the hair, for sure. I mean, it has the bangs that are the '90s,” Yamaguchi said, chuckling.

She appreciates that the doll's release comes on the high heels of the blockbuster “Barbie” movie last year. Her daughters, ages 18 and 20, are fans of the Oscar-nominated film. Their initial reaction to their mother being a Barbie? Disbelief.

“When they found out I was getting a doll, they were kind of flabbergasted and being like, ‘What? Like Mom, like how do you qualify? But that’s way too cool for you,’” Yamaguchi said.

When Yamaguchi became a household name in the '90s, most Asian American children were growing up feeling like toys-aren’t-us kids. If you were an Asian parent looking for an Asian doll in the U.S., you likely turned to independent mail-order companies or waited until you were visiting your country of heritage.

Since then, the toy market has evolved somewhat with big companies like Mattel diversifying and independent entrepreneurs filling the void. Two Asian doll lines — Jilly Bing and Joeydolls — launched within the last year, one by an Asian American mother and the other by an Asian Canadian mother. Both could not find dolls that looked like their daughters.

Sapna Cheryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington who served a year on Mattel's Barbie Global Advisory Council in 2018, said Asian Americans have long dealt with two stereotypes: the model-minority whiz kid or the perpetual foreigner. Toys can help dispel those myths, and instead signal acceptance and inclusivity.

Dolls modeled after real people can get people talking about their human counterparts. Cheryan applauded Barbie's choice of Yamaguchi.

“There are so many Asian American athletes but they’re just not propped up in a way that athletes of other racial groups are," said Cheryan, who researches cultural stereotypes and their impact on race and gender disparities. “Having a match in terms of racial identification or gender or both," she said, is important in creating effective role models for kids.

Mattel has mostly garnered praise for its diversity efforts but it's had some missteps along the way. In 2021, the toy maker said it “fell short” by failing to include an Asian doll in a line of Tokyo Olympics-themed Barbies. In January, there was some backlash to Asian “You Can Be Anything” Barbies that seemed stereotypical. One was a violinist and the other a doctor in panda scrubs.

Tying Yamaguchi to Barbie, a symbol of American pop culture, is especially remarkable considering what she and her family have dealt with as Japanese Americans. She has spoken about how her maternal and paternal grandparents were forced into U.S. incarceration camps in response to Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

When she captured the gold over 50 years later, media coverage partially focused on why she didn't seem to have many endorsement deals. In an AP article from 1992, a sports advertising executive blamed her Japanese heritage, citing an economic climate that was anti-Japan. “It’s wrong, wrong, wrong, but that is the way it is,” the executive said.

So while Barbie may seem like just a toy, it's so much more for Yamaguchi.

“When kids see themselves or see someone who inspires them, then it just opens up their world and their imagination to what’s possible," she said.

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Tang is a Phoenix-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on X at @ttangAP.

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, giving the Democrat a key spotlight on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses but potentially exposing him to uncomfortable protests as he seeks reelection against former President Donald Trump.

The White House confirmed Tuesday that Biden would speak May 19 at the alma mater of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and then address the graduating class at the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 25.

The Morehouse announcement has drawn some backlash among the school's faculty and supporters who are critical of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war. That could put the White House and Biden's reelection campaign in a difficult position as the president works to shore up the racially diverse coalition that propelled him to the Oval Office.

By Tuesday afternoon, some Morehouse alumni were circulating an online letter that condemns the administration's invitation to Biden and seeking signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, claimed Biden's approach to Israel effectively supports genocide in Gaza and runs counter to the pacifism that King expressed with his opposition to the Vietnam War.

“In inviting President Biden to campus, the college affirms a cruel standard that complicity in genocide merits no sanction from the institution that produced one of the towering advocates for nonviolence of the twentieth century,” the letter states, emphasizing King's stance that “war is a hell that diminishes” humanity as a whole. “If the college cannot affirm this noble tradition of justice by rescinding its invitation to President Biden, then the college should reconsider its attachment to Dr. King.”

Late last week, before the school and the White House formally announced commencement plans, Morehouse Provost Kendrick Brown, Thomas' top lieutenant, sent an email to all faculty acknowledging concerns about “rumors” and affirming that the school issued the invitation to Biden last September. That would have been before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, spurring the sustained counter-offensive that the Morehouse alumni letter called an act of genocide against Palestinians. Brown's email did not reference anything about the Middle East conflict.

Brown invited faculty to an online forum, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, to discuss the matter. But, he added: “Please know going into this conversation that the College does not plan to rescind its accepted invitation to President Biden.”

Morehouse officials have not responded to an Associated Press inquiry.

Asked about the concerns from some faculty members, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden is eager to speak at the school and added: “commencements are about the graduates, their families and their loved ones; about celebrating the accomplishments of the graduates.”

“I’m not going to weigh in on processes happening at Morehouse, but he looks forward to going there and celebrating with the graduates,” Bates said.

Earlier Tuesday, Thomas released a statement to BET.com that, like the provost's faculty letter, highlighted the September timing of the invitation to Biden.

Thomas said Morehouse officials “eagerly anticipate” the president's visit, which he called “a reminder of our institution’s enduring legacy and impact, as well as our continued commitment to excellence, progress and positive change.”

The Rev. Stephen Green, pastor of the St. Luke AME Church in Harlem and an author of the alumni letter, said in an interview that his group has reached out to several Morehouse trustees and hopes to speak with Thomas. Green, who graduated in 2014, called the effort part of a “common thread of protest and activism in the Morehouse tradition” of social and political engagement.

“We hope this would send a strong message that we are serious about the values were were taught,” Green said, adding that he wants to see Biden forcefully advocate for a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Beyond any dissatisfaction over Israel, polling suggests Biden may have work to do with Black Americans generally. More than half of Black adults approve of how he is handling his job as president, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in March, but that’s down significantly from when he took office and 94% approved of his performance.

Biden has increasingly encountered protests this year from progressives who assert that he is too supportive of Israel. The issue has proven vexing for the president. He has long joined the U.S. foreign policy establishment in embracing Israel as an indispensable Middle East ally. Yet he also has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for mounting civilian deaths in Gaza and told him that future U.S. aid depends on Israel taking steps to protect civilians.

The approach has left Biden with vocal critics to his left and right at a time when he has little margin for error in battleground states, including Georgia, that are expected to decide his rematch with Trump.

Biden's speech at Morehouse will mark the second consecutive spring that the president has spoken to the graduating class of a historically Black school. In 2023, he delivered the commencement address at Howard University. The Washington, D.C., school is the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to hold that office. Morehouse, a private all-male school that is part of the multi-campus Atlanta University Center, also is the alma mater of Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia's first Black U.S. senator.

Warnock, who also is senior pastor of King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, sidestepped any consternation on campus.

“I could not be more thrilled and honored to see President Biden return to our great state,” the senator said in a statement. “I know the president will have a timely, poignant, forward-looking message for the men of Morehouse.”

The controversy threatens to overshadow the policy priorities that Biden and Democrats have highlighted for months on HBCU campuses around the country. Harris and Cabinet members have spoken on several campuses. Among other policy achievements and priorities, the White House touts increases in federal money support for HBCUs; Biden's efforts to forgive up to ,000 in student loan burden per borrower and increase Pell Grants for low-income students; energy investments to combat the climate crisis, and Democrats' support for abortion rights and decriminalizing marijuana possession.

Warnock, in his reaction to Biden's invitation, played up his work with the president “to address the high costs of higher education.”

Reflecting the nation's overall racial gaps in income and net worth, Black college students are disproportionately dependent on Pell Grants, which typically cover only a fraction of college costs, and student loans. According to Federal Reserve data, about 1 out of 3 Black households has student loan debt, compared to about 1 in 5 white households. The average Black borrower also is carrying about ,000 more in debt than the average white borrower. Additionally, federal statistics show about 60% of Black undergraduates receive Pell Grants, compared to about 40% of the overall undergraduate population and a third of white students.

In 2020, Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes over Trump out of about 5 million ballots cast. The combined enrollment at Morehouse and its adjoining schools that make up the Atlanta University Center is about 9,000 students. Biden’s margin in Wisconsin was less than 21,000 votes. The president had more comfortable margins in Michigan and Pennsylvania but cannot afford to lose Black support across the metro areas of Detroit and Philadelphia.

Among states Trump won, Biden is targeting North Carolina, which has a notable Black college student population. Trump’s margin there was about 75,000 votes.

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Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Darren Sands contributed.

The lawsuit was filed in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville under the pseudonym Jane Doe by the American Civil Liberties Union. It claims the department acted illegally by updating its policies without following the state's Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, which requires public notice and public comment before an administrative rule is adopted.

The department previously permitted a change to the sex designator on a Tennessee driver's license with a statement from a doctor that “necessary medical procedures to accomplish the change in gender are complete,” according to the lawsuit.

That policy changed after the legislature passed a law last year defining “sex” throughout Tennessee code as a person's “immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.”

Shortly after the law went into effect, the department issued the new guidelines to employees on proof of identity. However, the department did not officially update the old rule or repeal it, according to the lawsuit.

Doe says she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2022 and currently receives hormone therapy. She tried to change the sex designation on her driver's license in February, but she was turned away. She has a passport card that identifies her as female and uses that for identification wherever possible, but sometimes she still has to show her driver's license with the male sex designation, according to the lawsuit.

“Ms. Doe is forced to disclose her transgender status whenever she shows a third-party her drivers license," the lawsuit states, adding that "she fears discrimination, harassment and violence based on her status as a transgender woman.”

The lawsuit says the new policy violates Doe's constitutional rights to privacy, free speech, equal protection and due process and asks the judge to issue a ruling to that effect. It also asks the court to declare that the new policy is void because it violates the Tennessee Uniform Procedures Act and to reverse the denial of Doe's sex designation change on her license.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Wes Moster, said in an email that the department does not comment on pending litigation. He referred questions to the state Attorney General's Office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Democrat Sharon Tucker was sworn in Tuesday as the new mayor of Indiana’s second-most populous city, nearly a month after her predecessor's death.

Tucker, who had been a Fort Wayne City Council member, took the oath of office Tuesday morning at the Clyde Theater, three days after she beat out six other candidates to win Saturday's Democratic caucus in the northeastern Indiana city.

The mayor’s office became vacant when Mayor Tom Henry, a fellow Democrat, died March 28 after experiencing a medical emergency related to his stomach cancer. He was 72.

Karl Bandemer, who acted as Fort Wayne's mayor in the interim, swore in Tucker before she and her husband, Timothy Barbour, embraced each other, The Journal Gazette reported.

“Y’all, they’re getting ready to put me to work already. I get to do my first job,” Tucker said before swearing in Bandemer to his previous role as deputy mayor.

Tucker had been a member of the City Council, but she resigned Sunday after her caucus win. She had previously served as a member of the council for Allen County, of which Fort Wayne is the seat.

Henry was elected in November to his fifth term as mayor of the city of about 270,000 residents. He announced his diagnosis of late-stage stomach cancer during a news conference Feb. 26 and started chemotherapy at the beginning of March.

Tucker, the first Black person to serve as Fort Wayne mayor, will serve the remainder of Henry’s mayoral term. It runs through Dec. 31, 2027.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A movement to ban book bans is gaining steam in Minnesota and several other states, in contrast to the trend playing out in more conservative states where book challenges have soared to their highest levels in decades.

The move to quash book bans is welcome to people like Shae Ross, a queer and out Minnesota high school senior who has fought on the local level against bans on books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. Ross, 18, said she is encouraged to see her governor and leaders of other states are taking the fight statewide.

“For a lot of teenagers, LGBT teenagers and teenagers who maybe just don’t feel like they have a ton of friends, or a ton of popularity in middle or high school ... literature becomes sort of an escape.” Ross said. “Especially when I was like sixth, seventh grade, I’d say reading books, especially books with gay characters ... was a way that I could feel seen and represented.”

Minnesota is one of several Democratic-leaning states where lawmakers are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have already passed them this year, while Illinois did so last year. It was a major flashpoint of Oregon's short session, where legislation passed the Senate but died without a House vote.

According to the American Library Association, over 4,200 works in school and public libraries were targeted in 2023, a jump from the old record of nearly 2,600 books in 2022. Many challenged books — 47% in 2023 — had LGBTQ+ and racial themes.

Restrictions in some states have increased so much that librarians and administrators fear crippling lawsuits, hefty fines and even imprisonment if they provide books that others regard as inappropriate. Already this year, lawmakers in more than 15 states have introduced bills to impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians.

Conservative parents and activists argue that the books are too sexually explicit or otherwise controversial, and are inappropriate, especially for younger readers. National groups such as Moms for Liberty say parents are entitled to more control over books available to their children.

But pushback is emerging. According to EveryLibrary, a political action committee for libraries, several states are considering varying degrees of prohibitions on book bans. A sampling includes California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, though some in conservative states appear unlikely to pass. One has also died in New Mexico this year.

One such bill is awaiting Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s signature in Maryland. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill last month that sets a high bar for removing challenged materials, especially those dealing with race, sexual orientation and gender identity. A version pending in New Jersey would protect librarians from civil or criminal liability.

Some proposals are labeled “Freedom to Read” acts.

“That’s what’s so critical here. The voluntary nature of reading,” said Martha Hickson, a librarian at North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey. “Students can choose to read, not read, or totally ignore everything in this library. No one is asking them to read a damn thing.”

Hickson recalled how parents first suggested her book collections contained pedophilia and pornography during a school board meeting in 2021. She watched the livestream in horror as they objected that the novel “Lawn Boy” and illustrated memoir “Gender Queer” were available to students and suggested she could be criminally liable.

“Tears welled up, shaking" Hickson said. ”But once my body got done with that, my normal attitude, the fight side kicked in, and I picked up my cellphone while the meeting was still going on and started reaching out.”

Book bans have been a sore point for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school teacher. The Minnesota Senate passed his proposal this month. It would prohibit book bans in public and school libraries based on content or ideological objections and require that the key decisions about what books will or won't be offered be made by library professionals.

The state House is considering an approach with more teeth, including penalties and allowing private citizens to sue to enforce it.

“I’m working with stakeholders, with the Department of Education, librarians, school districts and their representatives," said Democratic Rep. Cedrick Frazier, of New Hope. "We’re working to tighten up the language, to make sure we can come to a consensus, and just kind of make sure that everybody’s on the same page.”

Ross, a student at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, was alarmed when she heard last year that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books based on their content. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and they helped persuade their school board to make it much harder to remove books and other materials from their libraries and classrooms.

Because of her activism, Ross was invited when Walz went to Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul last month to view a display of books banned elsewhere. The governor called book bans “the antithesis of everything we believe” and denounced what he depicted as a growing effort to bully school boards.

At a House hearing last month, speakers said books by LGBTQ+ and authors of color are among those most frequently banned. Karlton Laster, director of policy and organizing for OutFront Minnesota, who identifies as Black and queer, said reading their works helped him “communicate my hard feelings and truths to my family and friends,” and helped him come out to his family.

Kendra Redmond, a Bloomington mother with three children in public schools, testified about efforts to push back against a petition drive by conservatives to pull about 28 titles from the city’s school libraries.

Pushback from Ross, Redmond and others succeeded. The Bloomington School Board last month made it much harder to seek removals. Parents can still restrict access by their own children to material they deem objectionable.

Many challenges in the district came from the Bloomington Parents Alliance. One of its leaders, Alan Redding, recalled how his son's 9th grade class was discussing a book a few years ago when graphic passages about date rape were read aloud in class. He said his son and other kids were unprepared for something so explicit.

“They were clearly bothered by this and disgusted,” Redding said. ”My son absolutely shut down for the semester."

Minnesota Republican lawmakers have argued that instead of worrying about book bans, they should be focusing instead on performance in a state where just under half of public school students can read at grade level.

“Every book is banned for a child that doesn’t know how to read,” said GOP Rep. Patricia Mueller, a teacher from Austin.

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Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this story.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' Democratic governor on Friday vetoed proposed tax breaks for anti-abortion counseling centers while allowing restrictions on college diversity initiatives approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature to become law without her signature.

Gov. Laura Kelly also vetoed a bill with bipartisan support to increase the penalties for killing a law enforcement dog or horse, a move that the GOP leader who pushed it called “political pettiness.” In addition, she rejected two elections measures fueled at least in part by the influence of people promoting baseless election conspiracies among Republicans.

Kelly's action on the bill dealing with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives stood out because it broke with her vetoes last year of anti-DEI measure from the current state budget.

The new law, taking effect July 1, prohibits state universities, community colleges and technical schools from requiring prospective students or applicants for jobs or promotions to make statements on their views about diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Kelly let it become law only two days after the state's higher education board adopted its own, narrower ban on the same practices.

“While I have concerns about this legislation, I don’t believe that the conduct targeted in this legislation occurs in our universities," Kelly said in her message on the bill, contradicting statements made by GOP legislators.

Legislators are scheduled to return Thursday from a spring break and wrap up their work for the year in six days. Top Republicans immediately pledged to try to override Friday’s vetoes.

Republicans in about two dozen states have sought to limit DEI initiatives, arguing that they are discriminatory and enforce a liberal political orthodoxy. Alabama and Utah enacted new anti-DEI laws this year, and a ban enacted in Texas last year has led to more than 100 job cuts on University of Texas campuses.

The new policy from the Kansas Board of Regents applies only to state universities and does not specify any penalties, while the new law will allow a fine of up to ,000 for each violation.

Backers of DEI programs say they are being misrepresented. The American Psychological Association defines diversity, equity and inclusion as a framework to guide “fair treatment and full participation of all people,” especially those in minority groups.

“We need to move forward and focus our efforts on making college more affordable and providing students from all backgrounds with the tools they need to succeed,” Kelly said in her message on the bill.

With the bill helping the state's nearly 60 anti-abortion centers, Kelly's veto was expected because she is a strong supporter of abortion rights. She already has vetoed two other measures championed by abortion opponents this year.

But GOP lawmakers in Kansas have had increasing success in overriding Kelly’s actions. Republican leaders appear to have the two-thirds majorities necessary in both chambers on abortion issues and appeared close on the DEI bill.

The latest abortion measure would exempt anti-abortion centers that provide free services to prospective mothers and new parents from paying the state's 6.5% sales tax on what they buy and give donors to them income tax credits totaling up to million a year.

Kelly said in her veto message that it is not appropriate for the state to “divert taxpayer dollars to largely unregulated crisis pregnancy centers.”

The bill also includes provisions designed to financially help parents who adopt or want to adopt children.

“Governor Kelly has shown once again that her only allegiance is to the profit-driven abortion industry, and not to vulnerable Kansas women, children, and families,” Jeanne Gawdun, a lobbyist for Kansans for Life, the state's most influential anti-abortion group, said in a statement.

Abortion opponents in Kansas are blocked from pursuing the same kind of severe restrictions or bans on abortion imposed in neighboring states, including Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. A Kansas Supreme Court decision in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution, and a statewide vote in August 2022 decisively affirmed that position.

“This bill goes against the wishes of Kansans,” Kelly said in her veto message.

Kelly also has clashed repeatedly with Republicans on voting rights issues.

One of the elections bills she vetoed would require county election officials to track how many ballots an individual delivers for other voters, as the state limits the delivery of 10 ballots per person. Legislators set that limit in 2021, but many Republicans argue that the state hasn't been able to adequately enforce it. GOP lawmakers contend the limit prevents fraud and lost ballots, though there was no evidence of such problems.

The other elections bill would prohibit state agencies and local officials from using federal funds in administering elections or promoting voting without the Legislature's express permission. Republicans see spending by the Biden administration as an attempt to improperly boost Democratic turnout.

But Kelly chided lawmakers for “focusing on problems that do not exist."

“I would urge the Legislature to focus on real issues impacting Kansans,” Kelly said in her veto message on the second bill.

The veto of the bill on police dogs was perhaps Kelly's most surprising action. Increased penalties have had bipartisan support across the U.S., and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis this week signed a measure this week.

The Kansas measure was inspired by the November death of Bane, an 8-year-old Wichita police dog, who authorities say was strangled by a suspect in a domestic violence case. It would allow a first-time offender to be sentenced to up to five years and fined up to ,000.

Kelly said the issue needed more study, saying the new penalties for killing a police dog would be out of line with other, more severe crimes, “without justification."

But House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican and the bill's biggest champion, said: “This veto is a slap in the face of all law enforcement.”

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This story has been corrected to show that one of the elections bills vetoed by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly would require county election officials to track how many ballots an individual delivers for other voters, as the state limits the delivery of 10 ballots per person. It does not eliminate the extra three days a voter has after Election Day to return a mail ballot.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The University of Michigan is informing students of the rules for upcoming graduation ceremonies: Banners and flags are not allowed. Protests are OK but in designated areas away from the cap-and-gown festivities.

The University of Southern California canceled a planned speech by the school's Muslim valedictorian — and then “released” all its outside commencement speakers. At Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested last week, the protests have included a large tent encampment on the Ivy League school's main lawn, the very place graduating students and families are set to gather next month.

This is commencement season 2024, punctuated by the tension and volatility that has roiled college campuses since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. In response, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.

Since the war began, colleges and universities have struggled to balance campus safety with free speech rights amid intense student debate and protests. Many schools that tolerated protests and other disruptions for months are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline. A series of recent campus crackdowns on student protesters have included suspensions and, in some cases, expulsions.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said the Middle East conflict is terrible and she understands many are experiencing deep moral distress.

“But we cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view,” she wrote in a note addressed to the school community Monday.

The new measures have done little to stop protests. In recent days, pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments on campuses around the country, including at Columbia, the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University, where several dozen protesters were arrested after officials said they defied warnings to leave.

While the majority of protests across college campuses have been peaceful, some have turned aggressive. Some Jewish students say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe.

Protesters are asking universities to take a number of actions, such as calling for a cease-fire in the war, or divesting from defense companies that do business with Israel.

“The weapons being made in this country are being sent to Israel and being used in the war on Gaza,” said Craig Birckhead-Morton, a Yale senior who was arrested Monday after refusing to leave a protest encampment. “We have to highlight the difficulties the Palestinian people are going through."

At MIT, protesters also have asked the university to stop what they say is funding from the Ministry of Defense in Israel to university projects with military objectives.

“We believe that we have a platform that students in other universities don’t have because of our unique ties to the Israeli military,” said Shara Bhuiyan, a 21-year-old senior studying electrical engineering and computer science.

The intense emotions on both sides have created a climate that has unsettled both Jewish and Muslim students. More than half of such students, and a fifth of all college students, reported feeling unsafe on campus because of their stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a report published in March by the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats.

Among the commencement speakers likely to encounter protesters is President Joe Biden, who is speaking at ceremonies next month for Morehouse College and the U.S. Military Academy.

Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League sent an open letter to college and university presidents urging them to “take clear decisive action” to ensure graduation ceremonies run smoothly and safely.

“We remain deeply concerned regarding the possibility of substantial disruptions during commencement ceremonies,” Shira Goodman, the ADL’s senior director of advocacy, said in an emailed statement.

The protest movement ramped up nationally after Shafik, the Columbia president, summoned New York City police on Thursday to clear a pro-Palestinian tent camp from the university's campus after student protesters ignored demands to leave. She described the move as an “extraordinary step” to keep the campus safe.

All 100 or so students arrested were charged with trespassing and then several were suspended — but as of Tuesday, the large protest encampment remained on the main lawn where grandstands for Columbia's May 15 commencement have already been installed.

The arrests came a day after Shafik pledged during a congressional hearing on antisemitism to balance students’ safety with their right to free speech. Following similar testimony last year, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania — answering accusations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students — resigned.

Several other college campuses around the country kicked off the new year with revised protest rules. In January, American University banned indoor protests. Harvard started the spring semester with guidance effectively limiting protests to outdoor areas.

The University of Michigan drafted a proposed “Disruptive Activity Policy” earlier this month. Violations of the policy, which has not yet been implemented, could result in suspension or expulsion of students and termination of university staff.

The proposal came in response to a raucous March 24 protest that halted the school’s annual honors convocation, a 100-year-old tradition preceding the May 4 graduation. Protesters interrupted a speech by university President Santa J. Ono with shouts of, “You’re funding genocide!” and unfurled banners that said: “Free Palestine,” forcing an abrupt end to the ceremony.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said in a letter to Ono that the policy “is vague and overbroad, and risks chilling a substantial amount of free speech and expression.”

But in a letter to the campus, Ono remarked that “while protest is valued and protected, disruptions are not.”

“One group’s right to protest does not supersede the right of others to participate in a joyous event,” he wrote.

At Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, more than two dozen anti-Israel demonstrators stormed the university president’s office in late March, refusing to leave for hours. Three of the students were expelled, including freshman Jack Petocz.

“It’s a very scary moment,” said Petocz, 19, who is appealing the decision. “It’s about the crackdown on free speech on campuses but it’s also about campuses becoming police states.”

Last Monday, the University of Southern California cited “substantial risks relating to security and disruption at the commencement" when it announced it would break from tradition and not allow valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian American Muslim, to deliver a speech at the May 10 commencement.

The decision sparked outrage and several days of protests on campus, prompting another unexpected shake-up days later: the cancellation of a keynote speaker for the first time since 1942.

The events at USC have raised concern that other schools will bow to pressure and erode free speech, said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“I am worried that schools might decline to select a qualified visibly Muslim student who advocates for Palestine, to avoid what happened at USC,” he said. “Schools are going to do more harm than good if they try to censor and silence commencement speakers, and especially students who have received the honor of speaking at their graduation ceremonies.”

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Gecker reported from San Francisco.

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BOSTON (AP) — William Strickland, a longtime civil rights activist and supporter of the Black Power movement who worked with Malcolm X and other prominent leaders in the 1960s, has died. He was 87.

Strickland, whose death April 10 was confirmed by a relative, first became active in civil rights as a high schooler in Massachusetts. He later became inspired by the writings of Richard Wright and James Baldwin while an undergraduate at Harvard University, according to Peter Blackmer, a former student who is now an assistant professor of Africology and African American Studies at Easter Michigan University.

“He made incredible contributions to the Black freedom movement that haven't really been appreciated,” Blackmer said. “His contention was that civil rights wasn't a sufficient framework for challenging the systems that were behind the oppression of Black communities throughout the diaspora.”

Strickland joined the Boston chapter of the Northern Student Movement in the early 1960s, which provided support to sit-ins and other protests in the South. He became the group's executive director in 1963 and from there became a supporter of the Black Power movement, which emphasized racial pride, self-reliance and self-determination. Strickland also worked alongside Malcolm X, Baldwin and others in New York on rent strikes, school boycotts and protests against police brutality.

Amilcar Shabazz, a professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, said Strickland followed a path very similar to civil rights pioneer Du Bois.

“He underwent a similar kind of experience to committing himself to being an agent of social change in the world against the three big issues of the civil rights movement — imperialism or militarism, racism and the economic injustice of plantation capitalism,” Shabazz said. “He committed himself against those triple evils. He did that in his scholarship, in his teaching, in his activism and just how he walked in the world.”

After the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Strickland co-founded the independent Black think tank, the Institute of the Black World. From its start in 1969, it served for several years as the gathering place for Black intellectuals.

From there, he joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he spent 40 years teaching political science and serving as the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers. He also traveled to Africa and the Caribbean, where Shabazz said he met leaders of Black liberation movements in Africa and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Strickland also wrote about racism and capitalism for several outlets including Essence and Souls and served as a consultant for several documentaries including “Eyes on the Prize” and the PBS documentary “Malcolm X — Make It Plain,” Blackmer said.

Comparing him to Malcolm X, Blackmer said one of Strickland's gifts was being able to take weighty issues like “complex systems of oppression” and make them “understandable and accessible” to popular audiences.

“As a teacher, that is how he taught us to think as students — to be able to understand and deconstruct racism, capitalism, imperialism and to be fearless in doing so and not being afraid to name the systems that we're confronting as a means of developing a strategy to challenge them,” Blackmer said.

For relatives, Strickland was an intellectual giant with a sense of humor who was not afraid “to speak his mind.”

“He always spoke truth to power. That was the type of guy he was,” said Earnestine Norman, a first cousin recalling their conversations that often occurred over the FaceTime phone app. They were planning a trip to Spain where Strickland had a home before he started having health problems.

“He always told the truth about our culture, of being Africans here in America and the struggles we had," she continued. “Sometimes it may have embarrassed some people or whatever but his truth was his truth. His knowledge was his knowledge and he was not the type of person as the saying goes to bite his tongue.”

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This story was initially published on April 22. It was updated on April 23 to fix the spelling of Malcolm X's first name in two instances.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators advanced bills Monday to give voting rights back to 32 people convicted of felonies, weeks after a Senate leader killed a broader bill that would have restored suffrage to many more people with criminal records.

The move is necessary due to Mississippi's piecemeal approach to restoring voting rights to people convicted of felony offenses who have paid their debts to society. It also reflects the legacy of the state’s original list of disenfranchising crimes, which springs from the Jim Crow era. The attorneys who have sued to challenge the list say authors of the state constitution removed voting rights for crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit.

To have voting rights restored, people convicted of any of the crimes must get a pardon from the governor or persuade lawmakers to pass individual bills just for them, with two-thirds approval of the House and Senate. Lawmakers in recent years have passed few of those bills, and they passed none in 2023.

“I certainly don’t think this is the best way to do it,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Horan of Grenada, who chairs the House Judiciary B Committee. “There comes a point in time where individuals who have paid their debt to society, they’re paying taxes, they’re doing the things they need to do, there’s no reason those individuals shouldn’t have the right to vote.”

Despite lawmakers' dismay with the current process, some are trying to restore suffrage for select individuals. On Monday, lawmakers on House and Senate Judiciary committees passed a combined 32 bills. The bills were introduced after a House hearing on Wednesday highlighted the difficulties some former felons face in regaining the right to vote.

Mississippi is among the 26 states that remove voting rights from people for criminal convictions, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Under the Mississippi Constitution, people lose the right to vote for 10 felonies, including bribery, theft and arson. The state’s previous attorney general, a Democrat, issued a ruling in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny and carjacking.

In 1950, Mississippi dropped burglary from the list of disenfranchising crimes. Murder and rape were added in 1968. Attorneys representing the state in one lawsuit argued that those changes “cured any discriminatory taint,” and the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court agreed in 2022.

Two lawsuits in recent years have challenged Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement. The U.S. Supreme Court said in June that it would not reconsider the 2022 5th Circuit decision. The same appeals court heard arguments on the other case in January and has not issued a ruling.

In March, the Republican-controlled Mississippi House passed a bill that would have allowed automatic restoration of voting rights for anyone convicted of theft, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, forgery, bigamy or “any crime interpreted as disenfranchising in later Attorney General opinions.” But the bill died after Senate Constitution Committee Chairwoman Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, refused to bring it up.

Horan said the Republican House majority would only bring up individual suffrage bills for those who committed nonviolent offenses and had been discharged from custody for at least five years. Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said she appreciated the House and Senate committees for passing the individual bills, but decried the death of the larger House bill.

“That failed action plus the testimony we received during last week's hearing are proof the system is broken,” Summers said. “We should right this historic, oppressive wrong by passing legislation that fully restores all who have been disenfranchised despite the conviction.”

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Associated Press reporter Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report. Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him at @mikergoldberg.

NEW YORK (AP) — A foundation launched in the wake of anti-Asian hate will hold a wide-ranging conference bringing together Asian American and Pacific Islander notable figures for a third year.

The Asian American Foundation will hold a Heritage Month Summit next month in New York City for AAPI Heritage Month. Oscar-nominated actor Steven Yeun, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and actor Maulik Pancholy — who had an upcoming appearance canceled by a Pennsylvania school board over his sexual orientation — are among those set to attend.

The summit will include various panels on issues like civil rights, extremism and the importance of representation. There will also be showcases of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs in various sectors such as nonprofits, food and philanthropy.

The Asian American Foundation, or TAAF, was established in May 2021 by prominent Asian American business leaders. The organization notably secured more than jumi billion donor pledges for AAPI organizations through an “AAPI Giving Challenge” at the time.

There had been a dramatic spike in verbal, physical and online attacks of AAPI hate since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which was thought to have originated in China. Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center, documented over 9,000 incidents — mostly self-reported by victims — between March 2020 and June 2021.

The foundation's goal was to “close critical gaps of support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and end the longstanding underinvestment in our communities.”

The summit will take place in Manhattan from May 2-3.